


We are not Soulmates

by Failfaster



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: A lot of domestic self improvement for the betterment of a relationship, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Fluff, M/M, Married Couple, Married Life, Skip age 33 if you don't have enough spoons for a really depressed Caleb, Soulmates, Widofjord Week Day 6: Soulmates and Modern Au, implied/mild suicidal content, widofjord
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-16 03:42:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19309912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Failfaster/pseuds/Failfaster
Summary: Fjord and Caleb are not soulmates. They made each other for each other.





	We are not Soulmates

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tokyo Tales: We're Not Soul Mates (Simon and Martina Podcast Episode 17)](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/492076) by Simon & Martina. 



Fjord is approaching 21, the Mighty Nein’s “Token Straight,” and Jester’s boyfriend when he first meets Caleb at a University party. The human is quiet and shy, and dressed more like a librarian than a friend of Molly and Beau’s, and Fjord’s first thought is, ‘Holy fuck, you’re smokin’ hot…’

Which is a thought so completely out of left field, that Fjord ignores it for the most part. He and Jester have been together since High School, and any other “experience” has been with women. Still, that doesn’t stop Fjord from having a sudden and intense need to make Caleb his friend.

He sticks his hand out as Beau motions for them to introduce themselves while she gets drinks, “Hey, my name’s Fjord. I go to Soltryce.”

“Caleb Widogast. I go to the Academy as well.” They’re slightly shouting to be heard over the music.

“Oh really? What do you study?” He’s never seen the man at the campus before.

“Transmutation and Dunamancy,” Fjord feels his eyes widen. That’s why; an Illusions major like himself has no classes anywhere near those labs, it’s much too over his head to even poke around at out of curiosity.

“Damn that’s impressive as shit!” He’s about to bite himself for speaking so rudely, but Caleb kind of chuckles under his breath.

“Yes, I can see why you and Beau are friends. You both have a sailor’s mouth.”

“Funny you guess that-! I use to be a sailor,”

“Oh were you?” And Fjord elaborates.

As they chat, Caleb is clearly very smart and Fjord finds it admirable and enthralling, listening to the man go off on long tangents about his degree of the studies in his prospective field. And Caleb seems just as interested to hear what Fjord has to say, even if 50% of it is bullshit he makes up or evades. It isn’t until they’re both very wasted that Fjord realizes their friends have left them alone on the couch. 

He spends almost the entire party talking to Caleb, more than content with just his company. Together they drink and listen to the music, and chat, and people watch. By the time their friends find them and declare it’s time to go their separate ways, they’ve exchanged phone numbers with the intent to get together sooner or later.  
-  
Fjord is 26 and he’s seriously thinking about strangling Caleb to death. He and Caleb have officially been dating for nearly two years. They’d finally moved in together, and already their difference routines are clashing. A period of adjusting was expected, and their schedules aren’t too drastically different, but they’ve reached a subject that is finally testing them; shopping.

Working in retail for a few years has permanently cemented Fjord’s hatred for shopping of all kinds and that includes grocery shopping. But Caleb likes to browse in the stores. Despite trying to stick to the list, once all of the items are gathered Caleb will suggest going to look at a completely irrelevant aisle to look for something. That “something” ranges from what they might want to dinner to a sudden craving snack, and it really grates on Fjord’s nerves. His entire mood plummets, his answers clipped and indifferent and monotone, and the fact that Caleb picks up on that and gets anxious and shy and quiet only makes him more annoyed. 

In an attempt to fix it, Fjord eventually would tell Caleb, “You can browse if you want, I’m gonna wait outside for you.” But Caleb almost never stayed inside longer than five minutes, much too short for him to actually be looking at things. The trips home on the train are tense, putting away the groceries are done in awkward silence, and whether they bounce back from the dampened atmosphere between them differs from day to day.

Finally Fjord is done.

He’s come to realize that his discomfort inadvertently hurts Caleb. Initially he’d thought suggesting only one of them go grocery shopping was a good compromise, but Caleb hadn’t liked the idea, saying that shopping for groceries was a “couple” thing. That is was something his parents do together and had done through his whole childhood. So Fjord had given it some thought, these past few weeks. Spoken to Beau about it. Beau tells Fjord he’s being immature, giving his partner an intense silent treatment just because he doesn’t like browsing in the grocery store. And she’s right.

Fjord commits himself to trying fixing it. He decides privately he’s going to force himself to just roll with it, to let Caleb take the lead in the stores, and see what happens. 

So, when next he and Caleb are at the market, heading towards check out, and Fjord takes a deep breath before saying “Is there anything else we need?” Caleb looks up at him like he’s spoken a foreign language. “I’m...sorry?”

Fjord tries again, “Is there anything else you want to look at?” 

“Uh….Ja actually,” and Caleb leads them back inside the store. And Fjord keeps his mouth shut, he makes a conscious effort to remain polite and interested and answer Caleb’s questions the same way they discuss their brands of bread or tea flavors. Almost instantaneously, Caleb’s mood changes; His posture relaxes, he looks much more at ease, happy even.

When they get home, Caleb asked what the sudden change was and Fjord speaks plainly. They agree that if Fjord continues to calm down, then Caleb would keep his browsing within a reason time. And that change is gradual, old habits die hard, but by the end of their third year, browsing in the stores is no longer a painful experience. In fact, it’s kind of nice, since they are ultimately grocery shopping and looking for things for each other.  
-  
Fjord is 29 when he and Caleb agree that moving is best. The rest of their friends have all gradually moved overseas to America, but they’ve been hesitant to leave Europe. Caleb’s parents are in Germany, Fjord’s work is in Holland, their whole lives have been shaped by the norms and resources here. But they miss their friends more than they like living here. By the time they finalize the move, they’ve already planned to come home to visit Caleb’s parents and old acquaintances regularly. And so after almost a year of visa application, job hunting, apartment looking, prioritizing what would and would not be coming with them, they’re finally on the last plane trip of the moving process.

Caleb is in the middle, a seat he only takes because Fjord has aisle and it was the only alternative to sitting separated for the 14 hour flight. He’s sleeping, leaning his head on Fjord’s shoulder with headphones on while Fjord watches a movie and holds his husband’s hand. As hard as this had been, they’ll be better off for it.  
-  
Fjord is 33 and being married has never been harder. He’s well acquainted with how painful being an orphan is, but the funeral was almost six months ago and Caleb just keeps pushing further away. 

Fjord can’t tell if it makes it better or worse that it happened right after they’d just come back from visiting Caleb’s parents. They didn’t even really finish unpacking before they were back, sorting through what little survived the fire, and sorting affairs. Caleb had been incredibly stoic through the whole process, but once they returned home he’d spiraled.

It had taken a while to notice because Caleb had spent every waking moment he was allowed at work for the first month and a half. He’d always been a workaholic, but now he used it as an excuse to run himself into the ground, to overwork himself to the point of exhaustion to avoid dealing with his circumstances. It eventually got so bad, Thelyss actually forced Caleb to take two weeks off. Once those two weeks passed, he’d lost that job because he stopped showing up entirely. 

Things only got worse from there. Caleb isolated himself from friends, spending more and more time at home. And Fjord had tried to be there for him, but eventually Caleb started lashing out at him too. He’d say terrible, hurtful things, and there was more than one occasion where Fjord had spent the night at Molly’s or Beau’s. And then he didn’t say anything at all, for days on end. There were really hard, scary emotional breakdowns that had required trips to hospitals. It sometimes was at a point where Caleb was so depressed, he couldn’t get out of bed. Sometimes has become often.

Something has to change.

He knocks on the bedroom door before he opens it, but he slips in without waiting for a response. “Cay?” He calls, still facing the door, hand on the doorknob. The room is dark, it has a funny BO smell. He hears the bed rustle, and turns to go sit on the edge as Caleb rolls over to lay on his back, and then pushes himself to sit up.

“...Yes?”

Fjord takes a deep breath. He swallows and tries to start again. “Today’s the appointment. At two, with Dr. Clay.” Caleb deflates and looks down at his hands in his lap.

“We need to get dressed and ready to go.” Fjord prompts. Caleb doesn’t say anything, doesn’t move. Fjord reaches out and takes on of Caleb’s hands in his slowly, giving it a squeeze. He blinks rapidly, fighting back tears. Those are for later, he can’t be so discouraging before they even get there. “Babe-”

“I know. I will.” Caleb says, snatching his hand out of Fjord’s. “I’ll get up.” Fjord nods, hesitates before slowly standing up and leaving the room, with the door open behind him.  
-  
Fjord is turning 38 today, and he’ll be home any minute. Caleb’s arms tremble as he pulls the jar out from the back of the storage pantry, setting it on the counter with a huff. Frumpkin jumps up and begins to sniff at the lid, curious as to what his human is doing. Caleb gives him a pet before going to open the jar, more anxious than he’s been in a while. He knows he did everything correctly, but that doesn’t convince him that when he opens the jar, his concoction of sugar, plums, and alcohol won’t be disgusting from sitting for seven months in his pantry. He has only had Port Domali Plum Wine once, and isn’t even sure if it’ll taste correctly with the proportions he used.

He’ll taste test it first. If it does turn out to be gross, he’ll throw it away, run down the street to the liquor store and buy a nicer end bottle of wine for Fjord. Less personal, but still thoughtful and celebratory. They’ll get the same result of drunkenness so it’s really same difference.

He pulls out two little glasses, some ice, a ladle and begins to open the jar gingerly, nervous about the results. But perhaps a bit too gingerly, since the jar lid won't budge. He tries harder, and when that fails to open he actually fights the lid with earnest. Still no give. He struggles with the jar for seventeen minutes when he hears the front door unlock and Fjord come in, 

“Honey, I’m home!” He calls jokingly. Caleb snatches his hands off the jar, unsure what to do with himself but stand and smile and lean on the counter to look as inconspicuous as possible (but it’s terribly awkward). “In the Kitchen,” He calls back after a stilted pause.

Fjord come around the corner, leaving his things by the hallway to be dealt with later and approaches the counter, leaning clear over it to plant a kiss on Caleb’s cheek, “Howdy,” He says before turning to the jar between them. “What’s that?”

“It’s your present, but I can't get it opened.” He explains. He tries to open it again, demonstrating his struggle while Fjord politely watches. Finally Caleb gives up, pushing the 5 Liter jar over to him. Fjord catches it, and opens it without any trouble.

Caleb puckers his lips and grimaces in annoyance, “Did you really just do it that easily.”

“Yup.” Fjord says, popping the “p” as he takes one of the glasses Caleb’s set out. Caleb is instantly anxious again-he didn’t get to taste test it before giving some to Fjord-! “No wait Fjord-”  
But Fjord is having none of it. Too quickly his husband has put ice into the glass, and is laddeling a small amount over it. He swirls the cup, giving it a sniff with an approving nod. “It smells good,” he mutters before taking a sip. Caleb holds his breath.

Fjord’s eyes brightens before he even swallows, giving Caleb the “I’m always impressed so I set the bar high for you and you’ve still exceeded my expectations,” look. It’s one Caleb is subject too often, and despite years together, he’s never gotten any more graceful at accepting it. He flushes and fights the urge to duck his head, instead looking down at Fjord’s nose where it’s easier than eye contact. “Holy shit-” Fjord explaims.

“Gut?”

“Yeah it’s great!” He declares and plunges the ladle back into the jar for more, this time pouring a glass for Caleb as well. Sure enough, it tastes as good as it smells, not too sweet and perfectly plummy. “It tastes better than the stuff from Port.”

“Now you’re bullshitting me,”

“No really! I don’t need ice for this, it’s not too sweet, it’s perfect.” He gets a mischievous grin and leans over to kiss Caleb’s cheek again, “Like you,” Caleb mimes dry retching, but laughs along as they pour more to drink together.

From there, Fjord declares their night a party. One glass after the other is drunk until half of the jar is gone, and they’re both loose and relaxed and walking that like between tipsy and drunk. At some point they’re falling asleep on the couch, Caleb reclined back between Fjord’s legs and leaning against his chest, Fjord with his arms wrapped around Caleb’s middle, cheek on the crown of his head and eyes resting shut. Caleb tilts his head back, wiggling until he can scratch at Fjord’s salt-and-pepper stubble and give him a kiss.

“Happy birthday,” He whispers.

Fjord hums and plants a kiss onto Caleb’s hairline, muttering, “I thought this was our anniversary.”

Caleb resettles, eyes blinking slowly and closing, his mostly empty glass falling with a dull thud from his lax hand, saying “Same thing…” as he dozes off.

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off a Simon&Martina Tokyo Tales video of the same title on Youtube (Episode 17). It's the exact same plot, I just stole it and put Widofjord skin on it. Congratulations to the Duckies for twelve years together, and Happy widofjord week CR fandom <3  
> #CoupleGoals #RelationShipGoals Go watch Simon and Martina videos please


End file.
